If you’ve had a phone in hand at any point since 2013, you’ve probably seen an animated rat riding a pizza on your grandma’s head, an array of animated stars bedazzling story content, or next level sass phrases and emoticons to say what you don’t really feel like saying. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, we’re here to let you know.

Giphy stickers! In essence, a Giphy sticker is a short looping video with no sound, typically attached to a photo or video, or used as a reaction in an online conversation. Acting as a memetic nonverbal language, they’re often used to express humour or specify meaning but are just as often used to signify membership to a certain ideology or interest. 

You know how kids used to pin all their favourite bands’ badges to their backpack before parading around school, chests all puffed? Well, a Giphy sticker is just like that, but for Instagram stories, and WhatsApp. And since everyone can make them, save them and reuse them, they’re used for pretty much everything.

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The Impact

Giphy stickers have a great impact on a campaign. They can be often overlooked, but here is how they can make a difference.

• Individuals will use these on story content.
• When shared it can reach thousands, even millions of eyes activating your brand awareness through affiliated audiences. 
• If the Giphy is entertaining/visually pleasing individuals will want to use them on their own posts.

The list goes on, but you get the point.

The Stats 

Now, obviously, there are some things to consider while trying to create the perfect sticker. Make it entertaining, make it meaningful, or both. At Comes With Fries, our top 4 performing stickers are short messages with animated typography. The rest of the top 10 are animated branding symbols and logos, which means our top stickers are all working to either solidify our identity with our audience or increase the likelihood of reaching new listeners with our music. With just 65 stickers we reached 4.2 million views, with 67,000 views on our stickers in one day alone.

Brand Relativity

The idea is to be discovered by new audiences but you want to make sure your brand is identifiable in the design. This means that the individual using the gif should be able to recognise that the symbol is related to your brand ie. we all know a yellow ‘M’ is related to McDonalds. 

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Search Terms

It's crutial that if you're the creator of the Giphy, that you think about what the user would have to search to find it. We recommend referencing the Giphy Guide to hashtags/search term, here is where you will want to point out anything that you think is critical and relates to your Giphy while keeping in mind how this would be relevant to reaching an audience that would be interested in your music. 

For example, if your design is a spinning apple and your audience is often interested in active lifestyle and fitness, you could use keywords such as:

• Apple
• Fruit
• Healthy
• Fitness
• Gains 
• Nutrition 

Keep in mind that you’ll also want to use search terms directly relevant to your audience and brand. The key for recognition coming back to your music with users that do not know you is all in the design. 

Be Prepared

Giphy may reject your designs for a variety of reasons so be prepared prior to a launch and ready to adapt your designs if it is needed. Read through the Giphy sticker approval requirements before creating anything! This will save you a lot of time and energy having to change your design in the future. 

If you’re interested in expanding your current digital marketing strategy with creative solutions to activate fan engagement, reach out to our team here.  

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